At present, a common type of electronic component mounting equipment picks up a selection of electronic components supplied via an electronic component feeder by vacuum suction of a transfer head nozzle and transfers and mounts them onto a substrate. There are various types of feeders which supply electronic components to the nozzle of the transfer head, and one type employs a tray.
An electronic component feeder of the prior art which employs this tray is explained next.
FIG. 13 shows a side view of an electronic component feeder of the prior art. In FIG. 13, a magazine 1 houses a tray 2 which stores more than one electronic component aligned lengthwise and crosswise in vertical multiple stages. A certain in/out level 3 is specified in the conventional electronic component feeder, and the magazine 1 is raised or lowered by elevation means 4 to move the tray 2 to this in/out level 3 for moving the tray 2 to a subsequent pickup stage 6 next. In/out means 5 is for ejecting the tray 2 at the in/out level 3 from the magazine 1 to the pickup stage 6, or to return the tray 2 on the pickup stage 6 to the magazine 1.
When the tray 2 required to be on the pickup stage 6 (refer to the tray 2 represented by a dotted line) is ejected, a nozzle 8 of a transfer head 7 lowers toward the tray 2, and an electronic component P on the tray 2 is picked up by suction at the tip of the nozzle 8. The electronic component P, shown by a dotted line, is then transferred and mounted onto a substrate 9, for example, a printed circuit board.
With the above electronic component feeder of the prior art, however, a long time is required to replace the tray 2 positioned on the pickup stage 6, resulting in a longer feeding cycle time, which in turn lowers productivity. The reasons are as follows. For replacing the tray 2 shown by the dotted line in FIG. 13 with the tray 2x in the magazine 1, the following series of operations cannot be avoided:
(1) the in/out means 5 returns the tray 2 from the pickup up stage 6 to the magazine 1; PA1 (2) the elevation means 4 raises the magazine 1 to set the tray 2x to the in/out level 3; and PA1 (3) the in/out means 5 ejects the tray 2x set to the in/out level 3 to the pickup stage 6.